The Road Goes Ever On...: the rest of this busy month of May

(part 3 of catch up)

Spring means flowers. We went to the greenhouse again and got our flowers for the porch.

Gideon loves looking at the little fairy garden stuff

Aurelia is difficult to take outside. She doesn't just sit anymore. She wants to crawl around and eat everything. For some reason, little maple seeds (helicopters) are her favorite. Let's hope they aren't toxic.

there's nothing in my mouth...

This stinker has learned how to cruise.

Crawling, standing, and cruising. Nothing is out of her reach now. Sigh. hehe.

And then suddenly it was my birthday. I'm another year older.

Gideon helped Nathan bring my flowers in

For my birthday, I took Gideon and Aurelia to the zoo. I like zoos and I didn't want to spend the day sitting at home cleaning or something. My mom and Jack came along.

Giraffe

I was trying to get a picture of him and the lions...

so cool

It was fun. It was a very busy day at the zoo, so I think they were a bit overwhelmed. But, Gideon has mentioned the zoo and the big muddy rino a few times since. He also has told me that we need to go to another zoo that has elephants next time.

Lena joined us at the park and we had a picnic. The boys played happily until we we invaded by a bus load of grade-schoolers and we decided it was time to go.

We got home and while Gideon napped, I planted my flowers. Aurelia wanted to help...

She likes to eat dirt...

ew.

Oh happy day. :)

Then since I had time and it was my birthday so I was feeling bold, I pulled out my trusty drill and hung a hummingbird feeder.

Gideon wanted to get his drill too

And Aurelia happily ate flowers

:) home.

Then, I quick cleaned us all up. When Nathan got home, the kids went to the farm and we went out to eat at Anju Above.

Steamed Chicken bun. so good.

Sushi... :)

Green Tea Mochi ice cream...

It was actually kind of weird.

We take all these pictures of food and forget to take pictures of ourselves...

So here, a quick selfie of ourselves as we were leaving.

It was a good birthday. :)

The next morning, while eating breakfast, Gideon says "I need to go work outside." He was very matter of fact and was carrying his tools so...

Hahahah.... what my neighbors must think

Then, I started getting ready for our garage sale. It's amazing how much stuff we have. It's kind of ridiculous actually.

We got another sunny afternoon on the porch.

If I could just do this all day :)

blowing a dandelion

They are going to be such terrors...

save me. haha.:)

We went on an afternoon walk. I didn't feel like digging out our big stroller, since Gideon never rides anymore. So, I pulled out the umbrella stroller. It just so happens to be small enough that Gideon can push it. Which of course meant that he HAD to push it. The whole way.

Nap times around here. They just don't go well. That's an understatement. The kids don't make it easy. Both need me with them to fall asleep. And, they of course can't nap at the same time. So, when I'm trying to put Gideon to sleep Aurelia is up, crawling around chortling and getting into Gideon's drawers or trying to climb up in bed with him. As you can imagine, Gideon, who hates sleeping, is quite distracted by this. Then, when I'm trying to put Aurelia to sleep, Gideon must be climbing around next to us, jumping on the bed, playing with a noisy toy, or singing very loudly. And, Aurelia, who LOVES Gideon just wants to sit up and watch him.

So, I've been sitting Gideon in his room to listen to a story when it's time for Aurelia's naps. This usually works for 5 minutes before he comes bursting back into the room. One afternoon, after sending him out for the 5th time and a half an hour into the process, I heard a crash and looked out the door to see this:

Yep...

That is in fact a shattered light bulb in the background. And, he is only in his diaper. The problem was now Aurelia was finally sleeping so we couldn't vacuum it up until she woke up. And, I'm sure you can imagine how difficult it was to keep a 2 year old out of his room.

So, we went out to the garden for a while. There are a few patches of garden still waiting for plants that I leg Gideon use like a sand box.

For some reason I'm crazy. Amidst all of the chaos, I decide I must bake. I wanted to sell some at the garage sale and church lunch was coming up.

cinnamon rolls

my two helpers

Thursday evening we set up for the Garage sale. Ron and Kary let us use their garage. And then Friday and Saturday we were open.

Aurelia had a blast crawling around the garage. Gideon got a little bored spending all day in a garage.

Tate came to visit.

It poured Saturday afternoon so we closed up early

Despite the rain, the garage sale went well. We got rid of a ton of stuff and made a decent amount.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday we had Graduation parties.

Kalahan let Gideon try on hid fireman hat

At Braxton's Gideon had fun with Avery

Maybe too much fun hehehe.

Gideon was very pleased when the coffee trailer happened to be at two grad parties!

Aurelia thought she was pretty cool getting to go in the trailer with Kayla and Emily

We made it to 5 grad parties in three days. It was a lot, but not as many as last year.

I didn't have time on my birthday to make a cake so, I made one a week late. I couldn't decide on a design, so I decided to test flavors out more. I made a white cake from scratch...still working on how to make it dense, moist, and taste good. This one was pretty good, maybe a little over baked, but good.

I started the cake baking during naps. Which of course didn't last.

Kids make things interesting.

The finished product

white cake, strawberry and mascarpone cream filling, and buttercream frosting.

It turned out really yummy. :)

At the same time I was baking the cake, I was also making more cinnamon rolls for church lunch. The disaster of my kitchen:

One day last week we went shopping. I hate shopping and clothes. Nothing fits right any more and I'm constantly switching sizes these days. It's been a really long time since I've shopped so I don't even know what styles I like. Yuck. anyway. One store in and I was ready to quick.

So, we played in the play area for a while.

Aurelia thought this beaver was hilarious.

Shopping with a two year old is an experience.

Gideon really did do a pretty good job. I just stress. I know: 1. some people think kids are annoying and 2. at some point Gideon will stop being cute and will be annoying. So, in order to not feel like I may get kicked out of a store, I tried to keep him under control. It didn't really work.

Just when we were ready to go, Gideon discovered the outdoor playground.

It was very hard to pull him away from this.

The lettuce in my garden is doing very well. I don't think we'd be able to eat this much salad in a year!

Playing while I garden :)

Strawberries!

she likes dirt...

and getting into Gideon underwear drawer

and playing in the container drawer

hehe

Troy came one afternoon and mowed for us. Nathan has been working overtime and with the rain we just couldn't get out to mow. It was practically a hay field.

For some reason Gideon hates diaper changes. So, I have to be creative to avoid the tantrums.

He wanted his diaper changed in the bathtub...

Oh also, notice Gideon's face? He tried to carry a big tractor down the stairs and fell. Somehow his face landed on the tractor... poor kid.

Anna graduated from 8th grade. We went out for the graduation/party.

Gideon enjoyed his cake.

It turned his tongue blue

Congrats Anna!

Aunt Cynthia entertained the kids

Grandma read a few books too

A finch couple has made their home in my fern. And, they laid eggs!

Gideon likes to look at them. I hope they hatch.

Oh baby girl

We have rough days but I still love cuddling with my boy.

handsome boy

My peonies are close to blooming, which makes me happy

Gideon likes to push his shopping cart with a ball in it on all of our walks. He also has to stop and pick up rocks and maple helicopters. Walks take way longer these days.

We made crepes one morning.

Gideon pouting about something.

We had to have a carrier for all the extra mascarpone cream :)

She loves the swing

We served lunch this past Sunday. Saturday, my mom helped me do all of the shopping.

three carts full.

I spy Aurelia....

Sunday went well. We had enough food and no one went away hungry.

all of our help

We had no plans that afternoon and evening. So we just relaxed, went on a walk, and played.

bubbles!

Monday, Memorial Day, we went to the parade with Jack and Matt.

I had to dress her festive because she's so cute.

That afternoon we worked on projects around the house.

Aurelia loved watching me hose off the porch

We went to the farm in the evening for an impromptu family night.

She loved the cows

She loves Gus too

Yesterday, we ran to the grocery store and then a quick stop at Carters for a baby gift. There are no quick stops with kids. Gideon climbed on the shelving and in and out of clothes racks and ran around the store. Any time I'd try to get him to stay by me he threw a complete fit.

Have you ever been in a store and heard a child throwing a complete fit? Well, that's us now.

I tried to talk to him and reason with him (hahahaha) and thought we had agreed that he would at least hold my hand as we walked out to the van... nope. He had another meltdown and threw a fit right in the middle of the parking lot. So, I had a car seat with Aurelia on one arm, bag of clothes in my hand, and carried a screaming child in the other arm all the way to the van.

sigh. It's moments like this I wish spanking in public was acceptable.

Gideon fell asleep on the way home. I carried Aurelia in first, who then through a complete fit that I put her down inside...